The Funeral of Agent Chan
by bhut
Summary: The agents arrive in London for a funeral of one of their own. Sadly, between Ethan Dombrowski and a giant orthocone, the ARC has to get involved.
1. Chapter 1

**The Funeral of Agent Chen (Part 1)**

_Disclaimer: all "Agents" characters belong to Marvel™ and Whedon._

_All "Primeval" characters – to Impossible Pictures™._

_Anybody else is mine._

_Note: this story contains spoilers for the official series and my previous "Agents" stories._

_On the Agents' plane..._

"So, where are we going this time?" Skye was asking faux-idly even as she was working on something on her laptop (or just pretending to). "Sahara? Siberia? Swazulu-land?"

"No, no, and why Swazulu-land?"

"Because they're tropics and start with the letter 'S', just as the previous two do," Skye said calmly. "And does the last part mean 'yes'?"

"No, it means 'no', right?" Simmons replied, who had been arguing with Skye to begin with, turned to Coulson. "We're not going to the tropics, right? Because we need specialized equipment to work in the tropics that we don't currently have-"

"No, we're not, agent Simmons," Coulson reassured the young woman. "We're actually going to London."

"To Canada?" Skye said incredulously. "Well, I guess it is friendlier and _marginally_ less cold than Siberia."

There was a pause. "Canada?" Coulson for once sounded almost incredulous. "Why Canada?"

"Because London is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario," Skye explained matter-of-factly. "Or a town – it's hard to tell the difference between a city and a town in the north."

"And you know this how?" Fitz joined the discussion (after 'subtly' looking up the Canadian town in question on the Internet).

"When I lived in a van," Skye blithely replied, "I decided to go and take a look at Canada's Niagara Falls – a breathtaking sight, BTW. Sadly, at that moment in time I also had a GPS of such quality, that if any of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s vehicles had it, its manufacturer would be arrested as a purposeful saboteur or a malignant incompetent in no time. Needless to say, I saw much more of rural Ontario than I would've liked."

"I see," Coulson thoughtfully said, but did not elaborate on what exactly he saw. "Well, you can allay your fears to rest – we're actually going to original London in England, to attend agent Chen's funeral."

There was a pause as everyone thought over this piece of information, and then, atypically, Simmons broke the silence. "But why, sir? I thought that agent Chen was from Hong Kong!"

"He was, and so's his family," Coulson patiently explained. "However, they are living in England instead. Yes, living, for they are civilians."

There was a pause. "Sir," Ward spoke-up carefully – he was even less used to arguing with Coulson than Simmons was."If this is a civilian funeral, then do we have any business being there?"

"Yes. We're the official S.H.I.E.L.D. representatives," Coulson said calmly.

"We are?" Ward said thoughtfully.

"Yes. We volunteered," Coulson said in the same calm tone of voice that usually killed any kind of argument, even from Skye (though she appeared to be somewhat resistant to it on occasion).

"Right. How this will go?" Ward, surprisingly, did not fully desist either. "Sorry, I have attended a _civilian_ funeral before."

"Well, maybe Skye, while she lived in a van, saw something along these lines," Fitz said sarcastically before Coulson could: atypically for the duo, both he and Simmons with the situation.

"Sure did," Skye nodded calmly. "When I was living in a van, for a while I was located between two cemeteries, both rather well-used. Even from outside it was clearly seen that this is a very ceremonial affair and if there are any tensions between the family, friends and co-workers of the deceased, they can come out during or after the burial making it very uncomfortable instead. Sir," she turned to Coulson, "just what are the odds that the Chens will tell us to get lost or make a scene?"

"They can make whatever they want – as an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Chen requires presence of S.H.I.E.L.D. at his funeral, and in this case it's us," Coulson flatly replied.

There was a dink.

"Excuse me, I need to go and talk to our pilot," Coulson said in his more usual tone of voice and left.

"Skye?" Simmons spoke up as soon as the senior agent was gone from the lounge, "can we go to my place and talk? _Please_?"

"Very well," Skye nodded, seeing the urgency in the other woman's voice. "Let's go."

They left.

"Poor Simmons," Fitz muttered to Ward. "She's probably already feeling overwhelmed by the thought of running any of those arrogant London scientists, with their fancy way of speaking English and jokes about kilts and uncooked haggis. Idiots! What do _they_ know about haggis I ask you?"

Ward sighed. Obviously, Simmons was not the only one concerned about London scientists - but he kept quiet and let Fitz rant.

Sometimes even Ward got his social cues right.

/

"And how are you feeling?" Coulson asked May as he joined the other agent in the cockpit. "As happy as usual, I reckon?"

"Yes. The fogs and dampness of London is just what we need after the sands of Sahara and the snows of Siberia," May said calmly. "Sir, just how well did you think this through? England is-"

"Completely," Coulson said finally. "I've did all the paperwork, I got all the bases covered... and you're not taking a sniper rifle with you."

May's look was especially pointed. "Yes, I know that there might be giants – there are rumors of more trouble circulating around NYC and the like – but we're not taking a sniper rifle or any other sort of weaponry. S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't an organized crime syndicate, you know... what?"

"James Lester has called. You know, from the ARC?" May said calmly.

"I remember Lester and the research center," Coulson carefully replied. "I didn't expect him to call just because we're in town-"

"Yes, well, he had too – there was an ARC-related emergency on our airstrip, so we are able to land only now. Tell our crew that we're beginning to land now."

"There was an ARC-related emergency?" Coulson frowned. "Get me Lester-"

"_We_'re _beginning_ to _land_," May said in a no-nonsense voice. "You can talk to Lester in person _soon_. Now buckle up and tell the others."

Reluctantly, Coulson complied.

_TBC_


	2. Chapter 2

**The Funeral of Agent Chen (Part 2)**

_Disclaimer: all "Agents" characters belong to Marvel™ and Whedon._

_All "Primeval" characters – to Impossible Pictures™._

_Anybody else is mine._

_Note: this story contains spoilers for the official series and my previous "Agents" stories._

_Several hours earlier_

The diplodocus may have been just a juvenile, but it was already over eight meters in length and it had an attitude to match. Supposedly just a placid plant eater, right now it was already doing a very impressive imitation of an adult sauropod, stumping its feet and cracking its tail like a whip.

"People! Tasers and tranquilizers aren't going to cut this!" Becker yelled angrily even as the dinosaur whipped another short shower of dust and gravel in their direction: in general, the diplodocus might have been slow, but its tail was quite fast.

"You don't say," Connor Temple said crossly, as he picked from the other end of the toppled ARC van: the tail slap had not just knocked it onto a side, but broke all of the car's windows as well. "The blighter already is heavier than an average car, if it goes down, it will probably never go up. We must bring the time anomaly to it instead!"

"Yes, well, with you and Abby having problems – again, and Matt Anderson... having his own problems, I grant him that-"

"Matt has been bitten by a prehistoric sea scorpion!" Connor shot back. "Yes, they weren't venomous unlike the 'real' scorpions, but neither was that swarm of future beetles, but Jess had problems all the same." He paused. "True, Matt's allergy wasn't as severe as Jess's was-"

The diplodocus charged. It began slowly, one leg at a time, but the dinosaur _was_ picking up speed, and at its already-considerable length its strides were quite long as well. With its neck vertically outstretched and its nostrils blowing out, it emitted loud honking sounds that would have been funny in other conditions, not when it was about squash several people beneath its pillar-like feet.

With a screech of tires a new character burst onto the scene – a rather fashionable-looking car that went straight for the dinosaur that literally dwarfed it and recognized this fact despite the low IQ. It continued to move, without stopping even as the car went towards it at a much greater speed – and then a time anomaly manifested out of it at almost the last possible moment, striking the diplodocus and sending it straight back to the Jurassic time period, from which it came. (Hopefully.)

And then the car stopped. "Let's not do it again," James Lester, the head of the ARC muttered as he emerged from his vehicle, followed by Emily Merchant. "People, good news. The dinosaur has been dealt with. Even better news – Anderson has recovered fully at last. The best news – the owners of this airstrip can land here now."

"And why is that the best news?" Connor could not help but ask.

"Because it's _their_ property, and their organization _is_ internationally important for us to stay on their good side," Lester said flatly. "With the minister out for blood again after the sea scorpion outbreak, I am _not_ giving her more fuel for fire, got it?"

"Yes sir," the others decided to salute him, valorously. "Matt is all right, yes?"

"Yes," Lester nodded curtly, before turning to Connor. "Incidentally, Shaggy, about your latest – and apparently last – break-up with Daphne-"

Lester did not finish, as a very loud sound – the sound of a very large plane landing – cut him off. For several minutes (actually, up to a quarter of an hour, even agent May could not land such a big plane very quickly _and_ safely, and right now she could go for safety instead) the ARC team watched the plane land, turn off its engine and open the ramp. And then its passengers emerged.

"Mr. Lester," their leader, a man of apparently Lester's age said brightly and politely, clearly suggesting that he wanted to be out of here ASAP. "I must admit that this is a surprise seeing you out here in the field. Last time we met you implied that you weren't a field person."

"Yes, well, my field team is currently understaffed, unfortunately, and you were in a rush, so I had to step up myself, agent Coulson," Lester was not particularly impressed by his interlocutor's attitude. "And BTW, your limo waits."

Whatever agent Coulson was expecting, a limo was not one of them, apparently. He opened his mouth to say something, when one of his subordinates jabbed an elbow into his ribs and whispered something to him in a very determined way.

"Good point," Coulson agreed, albeit reluctantly. "Mr. Lester, we'll take it."

"Good. It's a load of my mind," Lester said, still quite aggressively – something that was noticed by Coulson.

"There's a problem?" he asked, still politely.

"Yes, no, maybe. Agent Coulson," Lester turned and faced the other man directly. "I remember from your briefing that your S.H.I.E.L.D. is a very competent organization, but if you meet something that doesn't belong in this time and place – a dinosaur, a sea scorpion, anything else – contact us. Otherwise, the way that things are going on lately, it just might be worse."

"Oh?" agent Coulson raised an eyebrow, looked around (the signs of the ARC's confrontation with the diplodocus were very much still in evidence) and kept to himself. "I see. Got it. Thank you for your explanation, Mr. Lester. People, let's go."

They left.

Well, not until they took a walk through the airstrip (the limo had to be parked outside for several reasons), and noticed the general damage and chaos brought on by the diplodocus and the ARC field team (admittedly). But then again, they did withhold their comments, so something might have been saved in the process.

And they left, by being driven away in a limo hired on the Center's account.

"Weird crew," Connor could not help but to comment. "And dressed as if they were going to a funeral, too."

"They are," Jess Parker's voice came through the comm.-link, "but Mr. Lester, sir? There may be a problem. I checked over the itinerary, you see-"

"Give it to me, straight," Lester demanded.

Jess complied and as she did, Lester could not help but feel that the week that started with an incursion of sea scorpions just took a turn for worse.

_TBC_


	3. Chapter 3

**The Funeral of Agent Chen (Part 2)**

_Disclaimer: all "Agents" characters belong to Marvel™ and Whedon._

_All "Primeval" characters – to Impossible Pictures™._

_Anybody else is mine._

_Note: this story contains spoilers for the official series and my previous "Agents" stories._

"This was a very unusual welcoming committee," Skye commented as their rented limo drove off from the airstrip. "Are they locals?"

"Yes," May replied from her seat further upfront (she was sitting alongside Coulson for a change). "They belong to a local research center; rather big and important, but mostly in London."

"Everything is big and important that is mostly in London," Simmons spoke up suddenly, surprising everybody – she was not the arguable type, unlike Skye. "Or vice versa, or oxymoron – depending on who you ask."

"Agent Simmons – please," Coulson said wearily. "I know that you have strong feelings about your motherland-"

Simmons glared. It was rather unusual for the normally nervous S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist, and maybe that is why it almost did not work.

"Right. Change of topic. Please?" Coulson looked around. "Skye?"

"Hm? What you were talking about?" Skye looked away from the limo's windows. "Sorry that I wasn't paying attention – this may not be NYC, but it certainly isn't Canada's rural countryside either. Please, go on. Simmons, you don't like being here, correct?"

"Exactly! Just because I'm British everyone expected me to hail from here, even though I am not...but agent Coulson asked for a different topic, so let's listen to him now."

Skye shrugged and silence descended into the limo instead. Agent Coulson, for all of his professionalism and long experience in S.H.I.E.L.D. did not like silence, so he broke it again.

"People. Please. We have already been through a lot, so can we try and, I don't know," he paused. "Does anyone else hear a phone ringing?"

"Yes, it's the limo," Ward, who had also been looking outside a window (after listening to Fitz talk at length about Scotland vs. England, Ward just wanted to look at the streets outside quietly and peacefully), pulled a phone receiver from a car's wall. "Agent Ward speaking."

"Hi!" came a perky voice reminiscent of agent Simmons. "This is Jess Parker from the ARC. Can I speak to your senior?"

"Here," Ward nodded and passed the phone to Coulson. "It's for you."

"Agent Coulson?"

"Yes."

"There is a problem. The funeral of agent Chen that you have come here for has been postponed for a while. The Chen family account was one of many that were hit by a virus attack almost a month ago and they still have not fully recovered. Their father's corpse remained unclaimed in all of the commotion-"

"What?" Coulson almost barked.

"They don't have it," Jess Parker said gamely. "We can have the driver take you to the morgue where it currently is, or to the Chen family themselves, or to a hotel if you need to regroup and rethink your time here-"

"Thank you, but we would like to visit the Chen family first," Coulson spoke into the receiver before turning to May... only to find out that the latter was already speaking to the driver, who responded with a military precision and changed the direction in which they were previously going.

"Thank you for your assistance," Coulson spoke back to Jess without breaking a beat. "We'll handle it for now. Coulson out."

Fitz, who had been listening to this discussion alongside everyone else in the limo, opened his mouth to comment, but the elder man shot him such a look that Fitz decided that discretion was the better part of valor and kept quiet instead.

The silence was back.

/

And in another 15 to 20 minutes the agents' limo was approaching the Chen family home in the suburbs, when it stopped. "Are we there yet?" Skye could not help but to ask.

Before anyone could reply, May turned around, eyed them, and pointed to a smaller car with tinted windows on the opposite side of the street. It was facing a house, a regular-looking house, with its windows closed and blinds down even though the day was not a particularly sunny one, especially by British standards.

"Right," Coulson's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "May, stay with the driver. Ward, you are coming with me. The rest of you, stay in the car and be ready to get your heads down." He opened the door and emerged from the limo alongside Ward.

In the next moments several things happened at once. First, Coulson and Ward stepped onto the street. Second, the door from the Chen house was flung open and into the street emerged a young woman, dragged by an older man.

"Stop or we'll shoot!" Coulson shouted.

The next moment the car with the tinted windows opened its doors, releasing a man with a machine gun of some sort who began to fire at the agents. This was done in tandem with the first man, who pulled out a revolver from his pocket, and a third man, who jumped through a window with an automatic rifle. Working quickly and professionally the trio got the woman into the car and drove off, keeping the agents pinned down almost to the last, and their own means of transportation ruined.

"What the bleep was that?" Fitz asked when he finally got up from keeping his head out. "Who was that?"

"That was Rose Chen, agent Chen's daughter," Coulson said wearily – before he could say anything else the local police arrived and things dissolved into chaos once more.

/

...Before too long several new details began to emerge. Firstly, Rose Chen and her elder brother Lee were friends with Friends of Humanity. Admittedly, this anti-mutant paramilitary group was mostly active in USA, to a lesser extent – in Canada, but it was making inroads into Great Britain as well.

That, in itself, was not a problem – Friends of Humanity were not even arrested or controlled in the US itself – the problem was that this particular branch of Friends seemed to get involved with a character called

"Ethan Dombrowski," the police officer in charge explained to Coulson, his attitude barely better than that of Mr. Lester, if not worse. "A self-proclaimed anarchist that is in a nation-wide search for murder of several people. We were planning to make an arrest here – he and Rose Chen seem to be in a relationship of some sort – when you people unexpectedly arrived and upset everything."

"Yes, well, that Dombrowski was already upset when we arrived," Skye could not help but speak up.

"We know. Friends kept on Lee Chen as a financial advisor of sorts," the officer grunted, "and he had them invest at least some of their finances in the same bank that Chens themselves kept money in, so for now Friends' finances are just as tangled as those of many other people. Therefore, Dombrowski and his crew aren't too happy with the Chens; Lee Chen turned to us for advice and assistance, and as I said before-"

"Yes, we know," Coulson said quietly. "Anything we can do to help?"

"Just stay out of our way-"

"We're S.H.I.E.L.D. agents – you sure?" Simmons suddenly piped up.

There was a change in the atmosphere and Skye, for one, was not sure that it was a good thing.

"S.H.I.E.L.D., you say?" the officer said thoughtfully. "Well then, agent-"

"Coulson," the latter said, not sounding too happy about it either, "then perhaps you and your people _can_ help..."

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**The Funeral of Agent Chen (Part 4)**

_Disclaimer: all "Agents" characters belong to Marvel™ and Whedon._

_All "Primeval" characters – to Impossible Pictures™._

_Anybody else is mine._

_Note: this story contains spoilers for the official series and my previous "Agents" stories._

_Several hours later_

The time was more of an evening, rather than a night, at least chronologically, but between the overcast sky and the fact that it was late autumn it was already dark. The hideout of Ethan and his cohorts was vaguely silhouetted against the night sky, very much like the boat from the introduction of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", if anything.

"This would so exciting, if Coulson wasn't in such a foul mood," Skye muttered to Ward as they got into their motor boat.

"True," Ward nodded. Several hours earlier, as the agents withdrew to their hotel (provided by London police, not the ARC), Coulson's mood, while not exactly foul, was not particularly fair either.

"Agent Simmons," he told the woman. "Out of curiosity, but do you remember the official protocol of S.H.I.E.L.D. when dealing with the other organizations?"

"Isn't it a bit of grey area?" Simmons gamely held on.

"Yes, and while we aren't as insular as NCIS, the official policy is not get involved with other law-enforcement agencies, especially on their turf," Coulson snapped. "I had – still have – no intention of leaving Rose behind, no more than I have had agents Ward and Fitz back at the Hub. But it doesn't mean-"

"Excuse me," Skye interjected herself between Coulson and the younger agents. "But if the Chens have some sort of a tracking device, I could track them and see where they are, just in case you need to make a plan B or something."

"Thank you, Skye," Coulson relented, "but for now...let's wait and see what the police have come up with." That was then.

And now, it seemed, the police had come up with an amphibious assault of some sort. Well, considering that Mr. Dombrowski and co. were currently staying on a boat (well, a river ship, not quite a monitor-type vessel, but close), this was not such a dumb idea either.

"Anyways," Skye continued, "what is bothering you?"

"Excuse me?"

"You seem even more quiet than the usual – is it because you miss Fitz as your partner?"

"No," Ward said emphatically, "I don't. Well, I do, but not really. I believe that I saw Lester's people earlier, when we were leaving the Chens."

"Of course you did," Skye said calmly. "Our driver had been one of theirs, and he'd been hurt in all the shooting, not too heavily, but still. At least one of Lester's men is a robot not unlike you, but he also is a good commander and keeps an eye on his underlings at least. That is whom you saw, I believe. That's whom _I_ saw, at least."

"Why didn't you tell Coulson?"

"Why hadn't you?"

Ward paused and then his radio turned on. "Yes?" he spoke quietly into it.

"It's time to move," May's voice came from the other end.

And so they did.

/

The assault came as a group effort – the police's plan was to overwhelm the resistance as quickly as possible and considering that Friends seemed to be armed with (mostly) AR-15 assault rifles this was not such a bad idea. The fact that their idea of aiming was much less precise and more amateurish than expected with AR-15 was something else. True, they also had the cover fire from a much larger machine gun, positioned in the crow nest on top of the boat, but May now had a sniper rifle (but not a Remington) and took care of the gunman without too much trouble – he fell into water without anyone seemingly noticing (in fact Ward and Skye noticed this situation because they were approaching from a slightly different angle from the rest of the boats in order to board the ship), so all was according to plan.

And then Dombrowski appeared on the prow, still wielding his revolver. "Release the kraken!" he yelled, sounding even more unhinged than how he looked and blew a whistle. Immediately the AR-15s stopped firing, causing a lull in the action.

"Something is wrong," Ward muttered to Skye, before something huge and with too many tentacles to be normal surfaced like a submarine on speed, scattering the motor boats and turning some of them upside down with its bulk alone.

"It's trap!" Skye yelled the obvious just as their boat was hit and they fell over. And yes, Ward could certainly swim, but something struck him hard and he blacked out...

Back among the majority of the boats there was even greater panic. True, the 'kraken' or whatever it was, was also a large target, easily 9 to 10 meters long, but in the dark water (the sun had set fully and it was completely dark by now) it was proving to be a harder target than it would appear, more resistant to bullets too.

And speaking of bullets, somebody was firing once again, from Friends' boat, and this time he – or she – was picking their targets with care...

"Coulson, they got a sniper and something else," May hissed as she steered away. "We got to call for back-up."

"We don't know where Ward is, or Skye," Coulson hissed back. "I'm not leaving them without at least trying to-"

The motor of their boat was ripped away as the 'kraken' turned its attention them. "Bleeping European guns," May muttered as she turned to aim a shot at the night-dark water... which suddenly turned bright with light, as more motor boats, these ones armed with lamps arrived on the scene, and the 'kraken', surprisingly, reacted to them by retreating back into the depths of Thames, away from the new arrivals.

Seeing their monstrous ally put to flight, Friends did not liger either: their vessel may have been slower to pick up speed than the police motor boats, but it could still deliver: in several minutes it was gone out of sight.

The leader of the new arrivals drove their boat up to Coulson and May. "Hello again," spoke the chief of the ARC's, and by extension Lester's, security forces. "You know, Mr. Lester did warn you-"

"Shut up," Coulson said tersely. "This is S.H.I.E.L.D. and police business-"

"And what attacked you was some species of Camerocerus – a prehistoric squid if you would. That made it ARC business," came the equally terse reply.

Coulson just stared.

_TBC_


	5. Chapter 5

**The Funeral of Agent Chen (Part 5)**

_Disclaimer: all "Agents" characters belong to Marvel™ and Whedon._

_All "Primeval" characters – to Impossible Pictures™._

_Anybody else is mine._

_Note: this story contains spoilers for the official series and my previous "Agents" stories._

_Several hours later_

"Ethan Dombrowski..." Just hearing this name sapped wind from Lester's wings. "That's what he'd been up to. Of course."

"You know that man?" seeing how James Lester was not up for a fight, Coulson toned it down as well, opting to save all of his anger for Friends of Humanity instead.

"Yes. His real name is Patrick Quinn, a local boy. Years ago, when he was 14, he was driven through a time anomaly, into another time, most likely into the future, where he had to kill to survive until he became rather insane, but also very good at killing both people and anything else. Eventually, he ended up in the present time, where he killed several more people before fleeing into the Pliocene, pursued by his brother Danny, a former Detective-Constable of the police and a previous leader of the ARC field team. Since Ethan-Patrick is back and there's no new sign of Danny, we have to suspect the worst..." Lester trailed away, clearly deep in his own thoughts.

"I'm sorry," Fitz, who along with Simmons, was brought both up to date and to the ARC, could not help but speak up, apparently. "But did you say the Pliocene? But that's impossible!"

"Connor," Matt Anderson, apparently the leader of the ARC field team, spoke up. "Can you give them a demonstration?"

"Certainly," Connor nodded. "People, as you can see, this is a time anomaly manifestation device."

"Right, and?"

"And, this!" Connor pressed a sequence of buttons and a time anomaly manifested into being. "Please, step in – it's safe on the other end."

After looking at Coulson and seeing that he did not mind, Fitz and Simmons followed Connor through the time anomaly...

/

"My word! What is this place?" Simmons exclaimed as they stood on the shores of a sea. The place surrounding them was most definitely _not_ England, but rather something tropical, and the small dinosaurs were something else altogether.

"Well, the _time_ is the Triassic time period, approximately 230 MYA, and the place... well, we actually aren't too sure about the place; most likely it's the site of future country of Switzerland."

"Oh my, how remarkable," Simmons gushed, before sobering up. "Is that from where the giant squid came?"

"No, it came from a much earlier time period, the Ordovician," Connor shook his head. "Sadly, it came after a swarm of sea scorpions so while we were dealing with them, the cephalopod managed to escape. Anyways, it is time to go."

"Ah, but can't we stay..." Simmons didn't finish, as a marine reptile, about 2-3 meters in length and with trap-like jaws at the end of a long neck burst from the surf, snapping at the small dinosaurs that scattered in all directions. "Gulp. Never mind."

They left.

/

"Ugh, where are we?" Ward groaned as he woke up.

"We're on a boat – well, a ship. You know, the vessel kind, not the animal."

"Oh," Ward looked around. "Pity, I could've really gone with something soft and fluffy..." The door opened.

"Woke up?" the summoner of the 'kraken', Ethan Dombrowski himself, spoke as he made his entrance. "It's about time."

Instinctively, Ward lashed out. That was a bad idea: Ethan was armed not just with a Webley revolver, but also with some dagger that supported a short and curved blade that was also sharp enough to slice through Ward's clothing _and_ skin, but _not_ hit any of the major organs.

"Bad idea," Ethan then continued without a pause, even as he readied his revolver to fire. "I've had my fill of you S.H.I.E.L.D. agents lately, starting with Chens and Mayhew."

"I'm so sorry to hear this," Skye said brightly as she moved between him and Ward, "so maybe you can come back later and we'll talk then?"

"Or I can just blow your brains out now and bluff your superiors long enough to get the money? Bet you I can fool them with a couple of dummies or store mannequins," Ethan drawled out, his eyes as dark and soulless as the insides of his revolver's barrel.

"And where are you going to find mannequins in the middle of a river?" Skye did not back down.

"Hm. I have not thought of that," Ethan nodded sagely. "Very well. Rose! Patch the agent up with gauze or whatever you use at this day and age!" He turned around and left, closing the door behind him, leaving Skye and Ward with a young woman of approximately Simmons' age.

"Rose Chen, I presume," Skye began, but was interrupted by Ward:

"I could've taken him."

"Yes," Skye agreed in her humoring voice, "and his friends too? We don't even know where we are?"

"Neither do Coulson and the others-"

"Sure they do," Skye said wryly, as she tapped her bracelet.

"Oh. Yes. Hopefully, though, they will launch a better effort than what we did last night," Skye added and glared at the other woman. "And what is your role in all of this?"

Rose Chen kept quiet.

/

"So, there they are, right in the Thames," Coulson muttered thoughtfully at the spot on the map: Jess Parker was not Skye, but she was still very, very good, and with Connor Temple assisting her even better. "Interesting."

"Of course they are staying on the water. The Cameroceras, like other mollusks, cannot leave it. It's also interesting how it is able to endure fresh water...maybe during the Ordovician the salinity level of the primeval seas was different from the modern ones," Connor Temple muttered as he gazed on the map as well. "What?" he turned to Coulson's glare. "I think I have an idea how to send the mollusk back to its time but first we need to establish contact-"

Coulson's phone rang. "Yes?" he spoke into it, before covering it up with his other hand for more privacy. "I see. Dawn tomorrow, or rather today. Yes, it is funny. Got it." He hanged up and looked around. "Captain-"

"Becker, sir."

"Captain Becker. Can you and James Lester create a sufficiently convincing dummy money briefcase? I mean-"

"I understand, sir," Becker nodded in a way that was reminiscent of May. "How large, in estimation-"

Coulson told him.

Lester whistled. "We'll do it."

_TBC_


	6. Chapter 6

**The Funeral of Agent Chen (Part 6)**

_Disclaimer: all "Agents" characters belong to Marvel™ and Whedon._

_All "Primeval" characters – to Impossible Pictures™._

_Anybody else is mine._

_Note: this story contains spoilers for the official series and my previous "Agents" stories._

"London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down; London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady," Ethan Dombrowski sang even as he set his men – and the giant prehistoric relative of the squid – into positions. "London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady!" he dissolved into giggles, which were frankly disturbing, as Skye promptly told Ward.

"You mean the sniper?" Ward misunderstood his partner's concerns. "True, but his gun is a G3 – May can take him on, especially now that the night is coming to an end."

"Her Remington's better?"

"Yes. Whenever she begins to diss H&K I do not join in – she just might be slightly prejudiced, but an H&K G3? Yes, it got nothing on a Remington."

"And the fact that he's a former military firearms specialist? The sniper, I mean."

"May is able to take him," Ward said firmly. "She can."

And the sun began to rise.

Before it rose _too_ high, however, several figures, dressed in diving suits, slipped underwater, to meet the Cameroceras, and to send it back to its proper times...

The scene was about to get set.

/

"So, this is a flying car? Very nice. Cannot help but feel that inspector Gadget is being ripped off somewhere," Becker muttered as he steered the car while May took a look. Undoubtedly, she would have been happier with Coulson, but the senior agent on the scene opted to stay with Lester in order to deliver the money to Dombrowski, so for now she had to work with the chief of the ARC security instead.

Not that Becker was annoying – he wasn't, nowhere as much as Fitz & Simmons or Skye at any rate – he was just unknown, and May didn't like the unknown, especially now that that lack of knowledge – about Dombrowski's background and his beef with London's police (apparently Danny Quinn was a well-known and respected Detective-Constable and his loss was taken by the London police hard); about the presence of a giant prehistoric mollusc in Thames' waters; etc.

"Yes, well," she gave a look to the Englishman, "I found the sniper – he's on top of the bridge."

"Interesting. You can get him?"

"Yes," May nodded confidently. "I can. Any more questions."

"Yes, but of a more rhetorical kind: just with who is Dombrowski connected to in order to secure the London bridge to himself and us?"

May had no question for that and the night further gave way to dawn.

/

The sun rose. Ethan met the others on the bridge, swinging merrily his revolver. "So, where's the money?" he said calmly, swinging towards lucidity once again. "Here?"

"Yes. And where are agents Ward and Skye?" Lester said rather harshly, considering that Ethan was armed and he was not.

"Behind me," Ethan shrugged.

"And the Chens?"

"Rose is over there, her brother got shot when he was manning the Vickers earlier today... or was it yesterday?" Ethan continued in that same neutral voice. "No matter. The money?"

"Here."

"Now!" Ethan yelled.

Once more everything broke loose.

/

The Cameroceras surged. Matt and Connor were not sure just how Ethan was able to train the prehistoric cephalopod in a short period of time, but it did not matter. As the police once more began to exchange gunfire with Friends of Humanity, the Cameroceras went upwards, the morning sunlight still weak enough not to bother it.

On the other hand, the more powerful lamp used by Matt underwater did. The cephalopod whirled around, lashing blindly with its multitude of tentacles, and it actually managed to grab something or someone with several of them before jetting backwards – right through a time anomaly that led back to the Ordovician.

"We did it!" Connor told Matt through a microphone.

"Yes."

/

"Ward! Skye! Glad to see you back!" Coulson said with evident relief.

"Yes sir. Where did, uh, Ethan go?"

"Ethan?" Coulson blinked and looked around. "May?" He spoke into his comm.-link. "Did you get him?"

"Apparently he had some sort of a personal time anomaly manifestation device that he used to escape with the money," May replied, sounding unusually cross for her.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Coulson confessed. "His sniper?"

"In the water, apparently drowned," May confessed. "My apologies – it isn't easy firing a weapon from a flying car."

"And you'll be certain to write it in your report," Lester spoke up suddenly.

Never before did agent May's silence was so telling.

/

_Several hours later_

"You're back!" Fits & Simmons happily exclaimed to the other agents. True, they were not too bored, keeping Jess Parker company at the ARC's control center, but it was not what they were quite used to, when push came to shove. Jess's tale about Ethan's trademark speciality – self-made bombs – did not make them feel any better either. When Skye inquired further, it was admitted that S.H.I.E.L.D. training included disarming explosives, but so far both Fitz and Simmons were able to achieve that only in controlled circumstances, so neither was enthusiastic about a potential bomb disarming.

Of course, the same went everybody else involved from S.H.I.E.L.D. – as agent Ward pointed out, he had to disarm bombs in the past, and it just was not fun. Of course this prompted to Skye to say that she doubted that there was any fun in S.H.I.E.L.D. to begin with – idealism and genuine enthusiasm for certain, but fun? She was not so sure.

For some reason agent Coulson took offence to that, saying that the idea of fun was different from one person to another and just because Skye did not think S.H.I.E.L.D. was not fun did not mean that it was. Skye responded with a reply that she must have been wrong; she was probably thinking of agent Ward specifically when she had criticized S.H.I.E.L.D.'s supposed humour deficiency and she was sorry. Agent Coulson graciously forgave her but agent Ward spoke up, asking if agent Coulson also did not think he was fun?

There was a pause that was broken by ARC's captain Becker who consoled Ward (sort of) by pointing out that no one at his end thought him any fun either and did Ward want a drink? This caused Jess Parker to protest – she claimed to think that captain Becker was quite fun – and things went downhill from there – but that was another story, one that included the late agent Chen being actually buried.

_End_


End file.
